Posted
by
Soulskill
on Monday July 11, 2011 @04:25PM
from the you-are-old dept.

An anonymous reader writes "30 years ago this month, Nintendo released Donkey Kong — an iconic arcade machine that put the company on the video game map and introduced Mario. Technologizer's Benj Edwards celebrated the anniversary by rounding up some of the game's odder sidelights. For instance, it was originally going to be a game about Popeye, Bluto, and Olive Oyl — and among its stranger offshoots was a pocket-sized game in which Donkey Kong and Mario faced off in hockey."
Gamasutra has a more detailed article about the game's development.

Iwata: Yes, the company was releasing Popeye playing cards and Popeye Game & Watch titles.

Miyamoto: That's why at first I asked if I could make a game using Popeye. The basic concept of Popeye is that there is the hero and his rival who he manages to turn the tables on with the aid of spinach.

Iwata: When you put it like that, it's the same as Pac-Man, isn't it? (laughs)

Miyamoto: Yes, it's identical to Pac-Man! (laughs) So I sketched out a few ideas for games using Popeye. At that point, Yokoi-san was good enough to bring these ideas to the President's attention and in the end one of the ideas received official approval. Yokoi-san thought that designers would become necessary members of development teams in order to make games in the future. And that's how Donkey Kong came about.

Straight from the mouth of "the man who made up zelda based on childhood memories";)